MLB NOTEBOOK: Mets say Santana likely will miss season again

In this March 6, 2013, file photo, New York Mets manager Terry Collins, left, talks to pitcher Johan Santana before the Mets’ exhibition baseball game against Venezuela in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The Mets say Santana has injured his left shoulder again and likely will need surgery and miss the 2013 season. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

NEW YORK — The New York Mets say Johan Santana has injured his left shoulder again and likely will need surgery and miss the 2013 season.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner missed the 2011 season following shoulder surgery in September 2010, then returned last year and pitched the first no-hitter in the team’s history. He hasn’t pitched in an exhibition game this year because of arm weakness.

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said Thursday that an MRI in New York a day earlier showed a “probable” re-tear of Santana’s left shoulder capsule.

Alderson said Santana’s $25 million salary this year is not covered by insurance. The Mets will also owe him a $6 million buyout after this season.

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Ailing A-Rod will make more than Astros

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez will make more this year than all the Houston Astros combined — a lot more.

And he won’t even play the first half of the season, if at all.

A-Rod’s $29 million salary tops the major leagues for the 13th straight season, according to a study of major league contracts by The Associated Press.

Rodriguez’s Yankees are on track to have the highest payroll on opening day for the 15th straight year, climbing above the Los Angeles Dodgers to a projected $228 million with this week’s acquisition of Vernon Wells.

With teams due to set opening-day rosters Sunday, the Yankees’ payroll will be nearly 10 times the spending of the Astros, who have shrunk their payroll to about $25 million.

“When we get on the baseball field with whomever the opponent is, they are not sitting there saying: `Well, their players make more money than us so therefore you’re deemed a winner and we’re deemed a loser,”’ Astros manager Bo Porter said Thursday. “Games are won and lost on the baseball field, and it doesn’t matter what somebody is paid every two weeks. At the end of the day, that person has to be better than you today.”

Rodriguez, recovering from hip surgery, is followed on the money list by Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee at $25 million.

Three of the top six will start the season on the DL, with A-Rod joined by New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana (third at $24.6 million) and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (sixth at $23.1 million). Wells is fourth at $24.6 million and CC Sabathia fifth at $24.3 million, giving the Yankees four of the top six.

The Astros and Miami Marlins have no such worries about pricey players getting hurt. After lifting payroll to about $100 million at the start of last year and then flopping in the first year of their new ballpark, the Marlins slashed spending to around $40 million.

“You have to understand where you are and not be afraid then to do what you have to do,” he said. “Outside of building a good farm system, I don’t see how you will remain competitive.”

The price of competing keeps going up. The average salary projects to about $3.67 million, up about $200,000 from the start of last season.

Feller honored with annual MLB award

CLEVELAND — Late Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller is being honored by Major League Baseball with an annual award named for him.

The Bob Feller Act of Valor Award will be given each year to a major leaguer and Hall of Famer who displays good character, assists those less fortunate, supports U.S. servicemen and women and conducts themselves with dignity on and off the field. The U.S. Navy will give a companion award to one service member.

Feller served in the Navy, interrupting his baseball career to enlist immediately after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Feller did so despite being eligible for an exemption.

Feller missed four seasons but still recorded 266 career victories and led the American League in wins six times and strikeouts seven times.

A legendary figure in Cleveland, Feller died in 2010 at the age of 92.